It’s easy to lose who you are with the influence of the outside world setting expectations. Do you know who you are? Who you truly are? If you’ve seen the movie Moana, those lines sound familiar. Here’s what Moana teaches us about our true selves.
Others will always have expectations
Family especially will have a vision of who you should be, how you should act, and what you should be doing with your life. The key word in that sentence is should. Should is a guilt coated suggestion. It’s a recommendation with an expectation. What if I told you, you have a choice in who you are, how you act, and what you do with your life. If you have a healthy relationship with you family, their opinions have value. No one knows you better than your family. At the same time, no one knows you better than yourself. Accept that everyone will have their own expectations of you and then believe deep in your heart that you only have to live up to your own expectations. Moana did this when she lived up to her self-expectation that the solutions to the island’s problems were out there in the ocean.
A broken spirit can change you
If you feel like your heart has been stolen and your spirit is broken, it may cause you to act outside of your norm and (temporarily) become someone you are not. The movie Moana teaches us that adversity can turn into despair and can turn us into monsters. I know that either become a tiny mouse or a raging fire monster when I’m feeling despair and hopelessness. Not good. Like the analogy of boiling water, situations can change you. The same water that hardens an egg can soften a potato. Avoid being hardened when you should soften and become softer when you should retain your resolve. Remember that everything is temporary and you can choose how you respond. Broken spirits can be mended and all you have to do is search inside yourself. Remember who you are.
Inside of you, right where you are
Right now, who you are lives inside of you. It is in every fiber of your being. Trials and tribulations can hide the best parts of us or bring the best parts out. It takes a conscious effort to stay true to yourself. How do you find yourself when you feel lost or hidden? There are many ways including the simple such as looking at pictures of yourself through your life or grander ways such as retreats and workshops. Start with small and simple approaches and build until you find what helps you keep your spirit strong in who you are. Like in the movie, sometimes we have to go a long way to find what was inside of us all along.
I love how a children’s movie can teach adults lessons. Life is complicated but the lessons are simple. Moana teaches us that others will always have their opinions of who we should be. It easy to lose touch with who we are when it feels like the world is against us or just not going our way and the place to find who we are, who we truly are, lives right in side of us.
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